LP Review: Codex Narco by Godhunter

Now this is a fucking powerful record!

Godhunter, from Arizona, Tucson, have been producing stoner sludge for a number of years now, and when several members of the band left at the end of 2015, it seemed like the band's days were numbered, however, guitarist/vocalist David Rodgers, drummer Andy Kratzenberg, and keyboardist Matthew Davis continued on writing new music, changing from their ever present commentary on social injustice to taking a more personal approach and focusing on their own individual struggles, and it's made for a short but stunning new record, combining elements of doom, sludge, post-metal, industrial, and stoner to the perfect degree.

Codex Narco opens with 'A Dread of Some Strange Impending Doom', a two-minute doom opus, setting the tone as a bleak but charging expedition into the band's consciousness, putting you at an unsettling ease before the dark psychedelic stomping riffs of 'Like Glass Under Black Fingernails' hits you with it's doomy gutteral atmospheric ambiance. The vocals are a perfect juxtaposition of gentle heart-wrenching clean aches and aggressive power as the two singers vie for the most poignant delivery. The music is as bleak as it is powerful, and it grips you.

'Our Blood Is Poison' is a dark audio recording that sends a few shivers down your spine before the excellent 'Cocaine Witches & Lysergic Dreams' gives you a glorious wall of noise, dealing with issues of cocaine use shouting "The high isn't forever, and neither is this, the song is just as temporary as the fix" as the industrial stoner doom backdrop drives the music along with incredible power and force. It's a song not to be fucked with.

The band have recruited members of CHRCH, Mountaineer, Demon Lung, Methra, and Thorne to play on this record, and they've impressed to make Codex Narco a short but brilliantly powerful record, a one which even a cover of Tegan and Sara's 'Walking With a Ghost' fits in perfectly. Godhunter have produced a massive sound on a small scale, and it's impact is as heartfelt as it is speaker shattering. Available on cassette from Baby Tooth records, and digitally, we recommend you get this now.

All proceeds from the record go to Planned Parenthood.

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Album Reviews: Hurriah's "Cosmosotic" and "Mother Sky"

I'm doing something just slightly unusual here and offering up 2 albums from today's band under review, Hurriah. The albums are the recently released (Jan., 2016) "Cosmosotic", a full length, ten song nuclear bomb of psychedelic explosions, and the equally ionic, iconic "Mother Sky", a 4 song EP released May of 2015.

If you visit Hurriah's bandcamp page they describe themselves as the slag product of Sweden's heavy industries and their music as fast and heavy rock and roll. Eh! There's just a dab bit more to it than that, I assure you. What you will hear when spinning either album is some super slick psychedelic rock music with hooks on top of vicious razor riffs on top of beautifully crafted lyrics and wonderfully harmonic vocals perpetuating a sonic experience of primal fury coated in polymer precision and encased in high impact imagination. Hurriah's music is in rarefied company with their harmonic vocal approach which adds a clean, sweet spice to their dark energy groove as it expands your consciousness and excites your stoner soul.

The two Jespers, Österberg and Johansson, hail from Borlänge, Sweden and handle all the duties on these two offerings, but are looking for a bass player that will allow them to go on tour. Here! Here! I raise a glass to that endeavor because I think the world will thoroughly enjoy what these industrial music monsters have to offer.



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Video Premiere: Pale Horseman-"Conquistador"

Today we premiere the new video "Conquistador" from Chicago's sludge stalwart Pale Horseman. The song is from their highly-acclaimed second album "Mourn The Black Lotus".

The band continues to pummel audiences with their downtrodden heaviness and brutal industrial aura and has currently entered the studio to record their yet to be titled third installment to be released sometime in the fall of 2015. 

The album will consist of 5 songs running 45 minutes and will be the band's first release on vinyl.

Now in all it's ear-deafening apocalyptic glory, we give to you "Conquistador".

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